Trump on Charlottesville violence: ‘Blame on both sides’
Published on Aug 15, 2017
US President Donald Trump angrily lashes out at questions about his response to the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that ended in bloodshed, saying there was “blame on both sides.”
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Trump lashes out at ‘alt left’ in Charlottesville, says ‘fine people on both sides’
Published on Aug 15, 2017
President Donald Trump lashed out about the criticism of his initial statement about the Charlottesville violence today and quickly went on to blame both sides of protestors for the conflict, adding that there were “very fine people” in both the group of white supremacists and white nationalists as well as the counterprotesters. “I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides.
I think there is blame object on both sides,” Trump said during remarks in Trump Tower today.
“You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides,” he said.
Trump also defended his initial statement that he made about the violence on Saturday, saying it “was a fine statement” and that he wanted to make sure that he had the facts before speaking again on the issue, which happened on Monday when he made a second statement from the White House.
“Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don’t want to rush into a statement. So making the statement when I made it was excellent,” he said.
Trump’s remarks about the melee in Charlottesville, the state of the white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups in the US.
Trump took issue with a reporter’s characterization of part of the crowd being part of the so-called alt-right.
“When you say the alt-right, you define it. Go ahead. Define it for me,” he said.
“What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right? Do they have any assemblage of guilt? What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do,” he said. It’s unclear what Trump meant by the “alt-left.”
Trump said that he “looked” at images of the protests that were held “the night before” the violence Saturday. Photos and footage from the event on Friday, Aug. 11, showed groups of people carrying lit tiki torches on a march through the University of Virginia campus.
He went on to question why the statue of Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee, which prompted the protest in the first place, was being removed. “You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name,” he said.
“George Washington as a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down — excuse me. Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him. Good. Are we going to take down his statue? He was a major slave owner,” he said.
He was asked about his view of the driver of the car that plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring others.
“I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family and this country. You can call it terrorism. You can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want. I would just call it as the fastest one to come up with a good verdict. There is a question. Is it murder? Is it terrorism? Then you get into legal semantics,” Trump said.
